Loves Labors Lost

A labor of love is never lost. You do it for love. Starting in January 2026, Lydia Muijen a driving force and muse called for auditions and a reading where Inge, a 9 year old asian girl read Longaville with aplomb.

The journey

I returned from STA in St John’s Newfoundland refreshed and revitalised in my own Bardolatry; having found an international community of Shakespeare lovers and similar neuro-spicy nerds.

A 90 minute cut of the play followed, put into a .txt file, and made into cue scripts assisted by a new friend, Edward Speck (AD of Theater in the Open), who devised this ‘Tis your Cue software with Ben Swanson.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals began throughout feb and into march, once a week on sundays, with a cast of 17 including understudies for King, Princess & Sir Nathaniel.

My friend and collaborator DJ Steve Fly once again put together a soundtrack for scene changes and leitmotifs for individual characters.

Artistic Director Mike Manicardi confirmed our play dates from 13-16 April at the Badhuistheater (Click the link for Comedy of Errors tickets this June 27 & 28, 2026).

Four days and a capacity of 90 was a marketing & publicity challenge. (Our Will is never an easy sell not since his glory days back at the Globe).

Rehearsals were split between Lydia running lines and scenes and me putting together the rudiments of cohesion. So many actors and questions of differing degrees and difficulty and nerves that needed calming. Progress felt slow and labored but step by step the destination comes nearer.

PARIS: La Sorbonne et Shakespeare & Co

In between working at Mulholland Academy as Voice & Speech and Foundations of Acting coach my very good friend Ben Crystal conjured up another of his quick raises: starting monday of ‘our’ play LLL in Paris, rehearsing at the Sorbonne in the College Franco-Brittanique ending on saturday performing for French Scholars.

Or as they described it in their program a ‘Représentation de Love’s Labor’s Lost dir. Ben Crystal. Avec la participation de la Compagnie le Libre Alcyon, les étudiants, les lycéens et jeunes adultes des ateliers de pratique (Sorbonne Nouvelle et Sorbonne Université). These last all students that took part in workshops lead by Ben which helped pay for the experience.

Ben btw doesn’t direct; more than he facilitates an environment in which a cohesive ensemble rapidly grows. He also gave a talk on the tuesday evening at Shakespeare & Co where Sylvia Wh. resides and affords admirable leadership, assisted by Adam amongst a dedicated team.

My Paris of the literary thirties fantasies awakened as I sat outside on the terrace with Tsu our host on rue monsieur le prince, our backs to the rebuilt Notre Dame cathedral and the Seine, stroking Edie and soaking up the ambiance while the Crystal shone inside.

Chaos of final rehearsals

Once again another experience richer (et plus riche avec encore les nouveaux amis) we returned to Amsterdam from Paris by night bus directly to the studio and continued to glue our players around this narrative.

Note the fact that at least 6 players never performed on stage before, let alone do Shakespeare, and so understandably were panicking. Or maybe that was just me.

The muse stepped up and she corralled and cajoled and the players met more often, rehearsals increased, and our first try-out arrived.

Four people in the audience and just as well, as a complete run with complete cast had not yet happened. The next night we hit our stride and we knew come monday at the theatre we had it down.

Monday main cast, tuesday understudies night, wednesday glory be (and filmed it too) and our closing night thursday with a cast that had gelled and created characters that united to show and tell our audience the story of Loves Labors Lost.

In Conclusion

The magic of theatre is a combination of luck, grit, and dumb perseverance. Shit happens, emotions flare, people get sick, audiences make noise, and….

it’s all made worthwhile by a group of actors, who became lovers of their piece of Shakespeare, and made him live and breathe and sound again. Thanks to All who do this. Here’s we, waving at Lydia…